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A Tour of CN's Narrow-Gauge 'Caribou' Equipment


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Here's my tour last weekend of CN's Caribou....a.k.a 'The Newfie Bullet' Narrow Gauge Equipment on a short section of remaining narrow-gauge track at Mile 404 at the Railway Society of Newfoundland in Corner Brook.

I'd been to Corner Brook previously but always 'off-season' so I was surprised to see the cars open in these Covid Times and finally an opportunity to get 'inside' and able to walk-through the cars and the excellent displays and photo collection in the museum.

This was North America's last full-service narrow-gauge passenger train with Coaches, Sleepers and Diner that made it's last run in 1969 Some coaches were still in service for another 20 years on Mixed Trains until the railway was abandoned 1n 1988.

But there's been a bit of a play on paint schemes here! Old #593 would never have hauled equipment painted in CN's 1960's era black-white scheme.....and the cars would have had the red 'CN' logo.....not that green-gold 'NFLD Railway' tilted logo that disappeared after 1949 when Newfoundland joined Canada and CN assumed control of the railway.

(I must admit that NFLD logo looks pretty cool on the CN scheme in photo 3 :) )

 

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The Narrow-Gauge Sleepers had 8 Sections and 1 Drawing Room.......where on the Mainland the Standard Heavyweight Sleepers had 12 Sections and 1 Drawing Room.

 

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In the diesel era...the Caribou would have been led by GMD NF110 or 210s like #931 here:

 

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And here's a typical 'Caribou' consist from the late 1960s

GMD NF210
GMD NF210
Steam Generator Unit
Storage Mail (wood boxcar)
Baggage/Express
Diner (as lounge)
Coach
Coach
Coach
Diner
Sleeper (as Dorm)
Sleeper
Sleeper
Sleeper
Sleeper
Sleeper (Corner Brook set-out/pick-up)
Sleeper (Corner Brook set-out/pick-up)

In the fall of 1968 CN had introduced a fleet of new Roadcruiser buses and passengers soon abandoned the train for the frequent and faster bus service that now covered the 900 km run in 14 hours vs the 22 hours the train took.

The 'Caribou' was discontinued and and completed it's last run between Port-aux-Basques and St. John's overnight on July2-3, 1969.

Here's the CN Timetable from 1969 showing the last 'Caribou'.....Trains #101-102 along with the new 'Roadcruiser' bus service (#500 series):

 

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